The present invention relates to a vacuum-producing device for evacuating enclosures. The invention also relates to a holder and to a collection bag particularly useful with the novel vacuum-producing device. The vacuum-producing device, holder and collection bag of the present invention are particularly useful for draining wounds, and are therefore described below with respect to this application.
It is generally recognized that the healing of a wound may be greatly promoted by providing drainage of the fluids that accumulate within the wound. A number of devices have been used for this purpose, including simple rubber tubes and capillary tubes. Such draining arrangements, however, are slow-acting since they operate by natural pressure differences or by capillary action to produce the drainage. Other known devices include active vacuum-producing arrangements, but these are usually of complicated and/or bulky construction, and are therefore not generally feasable for use with certain types of wounds, such as those resulting fron plastic surgery, wherein the quantity of fluids to be drained is relatively small and the vacuum needed is high.